As YouTube and SoundCloud continue to strive to protect rights holders and their repertoire via fingerprinting, whitelisting, etc., many independent artists will unfortunately be hit with copyright-related strikes from major record labels, publishing societies, and others that don’t see the value in monetizing a different version of their original song or an independent remixing their material for promotional uses.

The reason for this is that much of the mindset of these brands is to continue to bring any attention toward the original artist and rights holder, and we agree in a sense. However, as a company that works primarily with independent artists, we continue to see the same problem of independent artists and record labels being hit with copyright strikes and takedowns for simply doing promotional remixes that are not being monetized.

In terms of YouTube, when a copyright strike occurs, it affects the channel in terms of any features that the channel potentially has. Once it reaches a certain strike amount, their channel may even be terminated for repeated copyright strikes. In addition, if a channel is part of a multi-channel network that manages many channels for monetization and Content ID purposes, it can affect the entire network.

In regards to SoundCloud, three strikes is now usually resulting in your account being terminated, despite whether or not you’re a paying subscriber. This has inevitably caused confusion and frustration for all content creators, and SoundCloud has been getting a lot of backlash from it.

We won’t be defending any particular brand here, but we want to try and stop the problem from getting larger. So, it is Symphonic Distribution’s recommendation that all artists and record labels start to move away from placing “bootlegs” or “fan remixes” on SoundCloud, YouTube, or anywhere else. With that said, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t an area of the internet space where you can’t do this.

Enter: MetaPop. Founded by one of Beatport’s former CEO’s, Matt Adell, MetaPop is “The Only Multi-Platform Network in the World Exclusively Dedicated to Remixes and Their Creators.” Before we go on, we’ll let Matt do the talking to further explain the service:

In case you are confused, MetaPop essentially allows you to upload your remixes that are unofficial.

MetaPop aims to connect you with the original rights holder to not only ensure they receive fair monetization for it, but that they don’t take it down or issue those pesky copyright strikes to you for doing what you crave and love. The best part is that the platform is ever-evolving and will be a great opportunity for everyone to potentially use to make revenue off your material.

This isn’t intended to be a commercial, but it is something any artist or label must do in today’s industry. The problem of copyright strikes and takedowns will not go away on the aforementioned platforms and it’s time to start segmenting your music focus to where there can be less drama and more awesome beats.